When I relate random things said or done by my kids, pets, library patrons, or strange people I meet, someone always asks me "When are you going to write a book?" The answer is the same for every mom - "In my spare time!"

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Friday, August 24, 2012

A Candy Bedroom - Who Could Argue With That?

C.'s room has been a hot air balloon/cars and trucks mash-up for a couple years, and was due for a change. We tossed a few ideas around, but his eyes didn't light up until I suggested his most recent movie obsession: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

I thought it was a great idea until I started looking for things. Try Googling "candy bedroom" or any variation, and you get a lot of little-girl-pink things. Even Pinterest didn't have much under "candy decorations" or "giant candy" or even the movie title. That's okay, if there's one thing I know, it's candy!

All week, I have been spending my lunch hours making things, and today while C. was at school, unbeknownst to him, I put it all together.

Before - bed and window

I had already switched the bedspreads over from airplanes to a candy stripe, but I couldn't find any candy-themed material for a new valance. Then I realized I was missing an opportunity:

After - bed and window

Chocolate waterfall, with a chocolate river! The sheer curtain was $5, the river is a carpet remnant from the living room. Later I will add a floor-to-ceiling tube at the end of the river, with PVC pipe and brown paint. I'll attach it to the floor and ceiling with L-brackets, and possibly attach hooks for belts, light sabers, etc.

Here is a close-up of the giant candy:

Plastic bowls and plates ($2 for 4) hot-glued together, wrapped in cellophane from the giftwrap department, hung from hooks with fishing line. The one idea I did get from Pinterest! The candy bar is painted foam board.

The sign C. made himself at Grandma's - crayon pieces glued to a board and hit with a hair dryer for a while.

The closet doors had car and truck decals on them before. L.'s crib will go where you see the bookshelves, so I needed something that would look cool, but still be out of reach.

Before - closet

After - closet

Lots of foam board here. The suckers are foam circles wrapped in fabric, and the stems are $1 pool noodles sliced in half. The candy orange slice and gumdrops are painted - each took about three layers of tempera paint. As soon as I put the third layer on, I dusted them with fake snow. When they were dry, I sprayed them with a cheap hairspray to 'set' the snow/sugar.

My plan was to attach everything with the hot glue gun, but IT WOULDN'T STICK! Minor panic, but screws went in just fine - I'll just need to cover those with paint later. I have more candy going on the bottom of the left-hand door, but it's still drying!

In the corner, I painted one of the funky trees you see in the chocolate river room.

I started this while L. was safely strapped into his high chair with a bowl of scrambled eggs. Then I put a chair in front of it. Then I let him down, stood on the chair, and started attaching wires to the wall (roll of wire $3, made a small loop at one end and screwed that into the wall.) Then L., in about half a second, crawled under the chair I was standing on, said "bah!", and smacked both hands into the blue, enamel paint. Before I could get off the chair, he had crawled back across the laminate tile floor, leaving a trail of bright blue handprints. Sigh.

S. was equally helpful all day. By the time Daddy called to check in, I told him if I got any more 'help', I was going to have to burn the house down and start over.

Anyways. The orange balls were some we already had a million of. I just made a hook on the free end of the wire and poked it through. I think they are higher than L. can reach in his crib, but I can unscrew them pretty easily if not!

The nice thing about these trees is that you can do them freehand, because they have no actual shape! I did draw the next one in pencil first, though:

Before - corner wall

And I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out:

After - corner wall

I will be adding white stripes when it dries.

I still have lots to do, mostly painting, and of course a Golden Ticket for the door, but this was all I had finished when it was time to pick up C. at school. I tried emphasizing to S. that she should not tell brother anything, and she made it almost all the way home. "Brother...brother...brother...we have a 'prise for you! It's in your room, but it's a 'prise!" Well, he has been bugging me for so long, it wasn't hard to guess what we had done - the question was, would he like it?